The two apartment-mates of a man charged with stabbing a Binghamton University professor to death said Abdulsalam S. Al-Zahrani was argumentative, confrontational and threatened one of them in the three weeks they shared a first-floor unit on Main Street in Binghamton.

Souleymane Sakho and Luis Pena (see attched pic), both post-graduate students at BU, said despite Al-Zahrani's troublesome behavior, the Saudi national never said say anything to them about anthropology professor emeritus Richard T. Antoun, who was stabbed around 1:40 p.m. Friday inside Science Building 1 and later pronounced dead at Wilson Regional Medical Center in Johnson City.

Al-Zahrani, 46, was charged early Saturday with second-degree murder, according to Broome County District Attorney Gerald F. Mollen.

"There is no indication of religious or ethnic motivation," said Mollen in a printed statement Saturday.

Al-Zahrani claimed to be a Muslim, according to his apartment-mates. But he had no affiliation with the local mosque, said Kasim Kopuz, imam at the Islamic Organization of the Southern Tier in Johnson City.

"When law enforcement showed us a picture, none of us knew him," said Kopuz. "This person was not involved in regular prayers at our mosque."

Antoun frequently attended programs at the local mosque, said Kopuz.

Mollen didn't reveal a motive for the stabbing, but said Al-Zahrani and Antoun knew each other through the defendant's post-graduate anthropology study.

According to the school's Web site, Al-Zahrani was a graduate student in the anthropology department working on a doctoral thesis, "Sacred Voice, Profane Sight: The Senses, Cosmology, and Epistemology in Early Arabic Culture."

Al-Zahrani, Sakho and Pena became roommates about three weeks ago when their landlord rented a vacant bedroom in their unit to Al-Zahrani -- a common arrangement in the student housing building.

Sakho and Pena said Al-Zahrani was confrontational as soon as he moved into the bedroom nearest the kitchen of the three-room unit.

When he asked Al-Zahrani why he bummed a cigarette when he had a full pack in his bedroom, Sakho said Al-Zahrani threatened him.

"He came out of his room, he had a knife. He asked me whether I was afraid of death," said Sakho.

Al-Zahrani walked away, which upset Sakho.

"I told him, 'Don't ask me the question if you don't want to hear my answer,'" said Sakho during an interview Saturday in the apartment.

Pena recalled what he described as one of Al-Zahrani's random outbursts.

"He was sitting on the sofa and just blurted out 'I just feel like destroying the world,'" said Pena, 22. "He seemed like someone that's calm, but he could flip in a second."

Sakho said Al-Zahrani claimed some students were spying on him and he was being persecuted because he was Muslim.

Both apartment-mates felt Al-Zahrani put them down for their religious beliefs -- both are Christians.

Pena said Al-Zahrani laughed at him for wearing a religious symbol around his neck.

"What do you got there? I want one, and then he'd laugh," Sakho recalled.

Sakho's last recollection of Al-Zahrani was around 1 a.m. Friday when he knocked on his bedroom door and asked if he was afraid to come out.

"I told him, 'Afraid of what?'" said Sakho. "When I open the door, he's walking back to his room. I said, "What's up?'"

Saklo said Al-Zahrani simply walked through the living room and down the hallway into his bedroom.

The stabbing was a surprise to both men, they said.

Sakho found out what happened when police arrived at the apartment around 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Pena said he saw Al-Zahrani on campus at mid-morning Friday. He didn't learn of the incident until he got to the apartment around 8:30 p.m. Friday, even though he had been on campus most of the day. He knew of a stabbing, but not that Al-Zahrani allegedly had been involved.

Both men said police searched the apartment until 1 p.m. Saturday -- nearly 18 hours after they had arrived.

Al-Zahrani's room was locked and police took the key, they said.

Al-Zahrani was arraigned Saturday before Justice Joseph Meagher in Town of Vestal court and remanded to the Broome County Jail without bail.

Mollen's statement said the defendant "intentionally caused the death" by stabbing Antoun. No other arrests are expected.

Mollen said he didn't know if Al-Zahrani had an attorney.

Various law enforcement agencies were involved in the investigation, including Binghamton University police, New York State police, Johnson City police, Binghamton police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Broome County District Attorney's Office.

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Why is it after the fact that we hear that these folks are acting crazy? His behavior leading up to the attack was bizarre, perhaps his roomies had just gotten used to it but I would have noted that he was acting crazy....

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Why is it after the fact that we hear that these folks are acting crazy? His behavior leading up to the attack was bizarre, perhaps his roomies had just gotten used to it but I would have noted that he was acting crazy....

MOO, a key piece of information is:

Quote:

Al-Zahrani was a graduate student in the anthropology department working on a doctoral thesis[.]

One of the most intelligent people I've ever known nearly went off the deep end on several occasions as he wrote and prepared to defend his dissertation.

As an example, one evening I was riding with him in his pick up along a somewhat busy street. Someone cut him off on by blasting through the right turn lane at an intersection. This maneuver is a common practice in the L.A. area. Generally, one grouses a bit and drives on--because as often as it happens to you, you're going to do it to someone else.

Yet, in this case, my pal went ballistic. He pursued the offending vehicle, yelling obscenities and threats. He cut off the vehicle, let it go, chased it down again, and cut it off. "YOU'RE DEAD," he roared.

With white knuckles and clenched teeth, I waited with decreasing confidence for him to snap out of it before getting out of his truck and inflicting mayhem on a couple of poor souls. Fortunately, my somewhat snarky exhortations for him to calm down got through to him and he let the motorist go.

He had several other explosions of temper in the ensuing months. His rage eventually cost him some friendships--including mine--and nearly cost him his engagement to his fiance. And also, his department got so tired of him that his dissertation committee approved his thesis with very few comments. (When this happens, they're basically telling you to go away and not to count on any support in your subsequent job search.)

FWIW, UCLA's Peter Lowenberg wrote some interesting essays on the graduate school experience. These essays, which I recommend to anyone considering graduate school, are available in Decoding the Past: The Psychohistorical Approach, and I recommend them to anyone considering graduate school in any field.

My $0.02. But then that would still leave you $28.48 short if you were looking to buy the cloth bound, unabridged edition of Michel Foucault's History of Madness.

As an example, one evening I was riding with him in his pick up along a somewhat busy street. Someone cut him off on by blasting through the right turn lane at an intersection. This maneuver is a common practice in the L.A. area. Generally, one grouses a bit and drives on--because as often as it happens to you, you're going to do it to someone else.

Yet, in this case, my pal went ballistic. He pursued the offending vehicle, yelling obscenities and threats. He cut off the vehicle, let it go, chased it down again, and cut it off. "YOU'RE DEAD," he roared.

He had several other explosions of temper in the ensuing months. His rage eventually cost him some friendships--including mine--and nearly cost him his engagement to his fiance. And also, his department got so tired of him that his dissertation committee approved his thesis with very few comments. (When this happens, they're basically telling you to go away and not to count on any support in your subsequent job search.)

Your shiiting me,, Are you proposing his defense "murder because of dissertation overload" ??

Once again:Why is it after the fact that we hear that these folks are acting crazy? His behavior leading up to the attack was bizarre, perhaps his roomies had just gotten used to it but I would have noted that he was acting crazy....

You

Quote:

MOO

Then go on to explain why G-students regularly go crazy BECAUSE of the rigars of writing their thesis??? In doing so you use your X-bud

Quote:

One of the most intelligent people I've ever known nearly went off the deep end on several occasions as he wrote and prepared to defend his dissertation.

as an example. Additionally you suggest one would read some-ones dissertation on dissertations as back-up.

I may be old and less speedy than yesterday,, but in my opinion, your statement amounted to a pre-packaged excuse for this Shiitehead and any other wacko that has a bad hair day "while writing their thesis",, with quotable cross references, appendices, and historical in-significances....

....Is my dyslexia getting more pronounced,, or did I miss something..

PS: Nobuyuki Kayahara's lady spins both ways for me..

JJ

Sigaba explained why bizzaro actions would not be considered all that odd for a grad student. But a threat with a weapon should have been handled better. Look for the school's investigation to be whitewash.

I got 2 20 year olds who are not grad sudents but are in college and they get mighty bizzaro just come finals time.

I think this thread is another one of those that would be done better at a table over a few beers.

Why is it after the fact that we hear that these folks are acting crazy? His behavior leading up to the attack was bizarre, perhaps his roomies had just gotten used to it but I would have noted that he was acting crazy....

I expect that part of the answer is that LE can do nothing until a crime is committed. Should his roomies have raised concerns with "authorities", it is likely this perp would have made life even more uncomfortable for those around him. So you put up with him and hope for the best. Even given all the red flags before the Ft. Hood murders, "authorities" acted too late. Al-Zahrani was well under the radar.

He was acting "crazy" I suppose; with the knife in particular. Perhaps the good folks at The Binghamton Psychiatric Center could have helped out if they knew about him, perhaps. Some folks present with even more bizzare behavior and seem to do "alright". Me thinks I smell a defense plea of insanity in the future for Al-Zahrani.

My $.02.

RF 1

__________________Status quo, you know, is latin for "the mess we're in". Ronald Reagan

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I didn't get Sigaba doing the apologist bit either, but I do not think either of you are bad guys, we are just failing to communicate.

Some grad students are under pressure, no doubt, but this guy had a lot of other baggage to go with it. Too bad we do not have a better crazy Muslim detection capability in place yet. We need to figure out how to be proactive and to pre-empt these assholes.

TR

__________________
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910

Then [you] go on to explain why G-students regularly go crazy BECAUSE of the rigars of writing their thesis??? In doing so you use your X-bud as an example. Additionally you suggest one would read some-ones dissertation on dissertations as back-up.

I may be old and less speedy than yesterday,, but in my opinion, your statement amounted to a pre-packaged excuse for this Shiitehead and any other wacko that has a bad hair day "while writing their thesis",, with quotable cross references, appendices, and historical in-significances....

Is my dyslexia getting more pronounced,, or did I miss something..

PS: Nobuyuki Kayahara's lady spins both ways for me..

Sir,

Please give me an opportunity to clarify two of my points and to elaborate a third.

First, I do not state the position that graduate students go crazy because of their thesis. My position is that there are occasions where people look the other way despite evidence that something is going seriously sideways, and then use the excuse of the pressures of graduate school to rationalize their bad judgement. My post is offered as a reason for this dynamic, not as an excuse.

Second, the purpose of including my personal experience with my erstwhile friend was to illustrate the dynamic from two perspectives. The first is being in it (as we were classmates) and excusing intolerable conduct. (He's under a lot of pressure...he's normally a great guy...this isn't like him at all...he's brilliant...once he turns this corner he'll be off and running on a successful career.) The second is being out of it: he's an erstwhile friend for the same reason our department pulled back from him as quickly as it could. (This guy is out of control. He's a risk not worth tolerating. He needs help and even after he gets it, we want nothing to do with him.)

One may say I was too glib in how I discussed my former friend. Perhaps. My perspective is that I am relating an incident in which myself and others were in physical danger (if not actual mortal peril). When relating such personal experiences, I tend to use a humorous tone (mostly to deflect a sense of wrath--I am very even tempered in that I am mad all the time).

In candor, I must say that I found your comments about my "quotable cross references, appendices, and historical in-significances," a bit confusing and, ah, frustrating, especially in regards to the last zinger. I do hope you will accept the fact that I'm committed to finding a happy medium between putting too much historical/historiographical detail in my posts and too little. Your criticism indicates that I've still got a ways to go.

Please allow me to elaborate my mentioning of Lowenberg (whom I have discussed in passing in a previous thread <<LINK>>). In the referenced essays, Peter Lowenberg offers a blistering critique of the current method by which graduate students are trained in their craft. Lowenberg was, in addition to being an academic historian, a practicing clinical psychoanalyst. This latter profession informed greatly his discussion of the topic.

For him to write from the perspective of the latter put his standing as an academic at risk for two reasons. First, psycho-historians never endeared themselves to the Ivory Tower. Part of this unpopularity is that clinical psychoanalytic theory is especially disruptive to a materialist (read: Marxist) approach to history. Second, his essays aired some of the Ivory Tower's dirty laundry--not by naming names, but by highlighting bad habits and questionable practices. For him to take this risk illustrates how seriously he viewed his concerns.

FWIW, my own experiences and my reading of Lowenberg informed my approach to teaching. If I had concerns about a student, I voiced them.

And at least one major university in southern California has taken a proactive role towards risk management.